New music
CD: Red Hot Chili Peppers - The GetawayWednesday, 15 June 2016![]() Of all the challenges the Chilis have faced over the years none has been greater than how to deal with guitarist John Frusciante's occasional spells of retirement. When, in the mid-nineties superstar axeman Dave Navarro stood in for him, his... Read more... |
A salute to Dave Swarbrick's singingTuesday, 14 June 2016![]() When folk rock’s demon fiddler Dave Swarbrick died at 75 on 3 June, it was barely noticed that Real Gone Music released Fairport Convention’s Live in Finland 1971 the same day. Featuring the lineup of Swarbrick, Dave Mattacks (drums), Simon Nicol (... Read more... |
DVD: Born to BoogieTuesday, 14 June 2016![]() “Telegram Sam” by T. Rex spent its second and final week at the top of the singles chart in the week of 12 February 1972. A month later, on 18 March, Marc Bolan and his band played two shows at Wembley’s Empire Pool to a sell-out crowd under the... Read more... |
Found Festival 2016, Brockwell ParkMonday, 13 June 2016![]() Found Festival 2016 got a couple of things right. The choice of music-makers was solid and the broad cross-section of friendly people who attended was admirable. But, unfortunately, everything else went wrong. Worst of all was the behaviour of the... Read more... |
CD: Laura Mvula – The Dreaming RoomMonday, 13 June 2016![]() It’s not that there’s anything lacking in the writing quality on Ms Mvula’s second album (or third if you include her powerful orchestral revisiting of Sing To The Moon), it’s just that its overall effect becomes a little wearying after a while. It’... Read more... |
Laura Mvula, Festival of Voice, CardiffSunday, 12 June 2016![]() Laura Mvula talks almost as much as she sings. Between songs she confesses to rambling, but her musings – on heartbreak, on “toilet analogies” for the recording process, on meeting the Duke of Edinburgh and then falling over – are never less than... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Folque, Undertakers CircusSunday, 12 June 2016![]() The names may be unfamiliar, but Folque and Undertakers Circus are as good as better-known bands. Despite being musical bedfellows neither Norwegian band is as esteemed as, say, Trader Horne and Trees or Colloseum and Lighthouse. Folque issued their... Read more... |
CD: Swans – The Glowing ManSunday, 12 June 2016![]() The Glowing Man may be the declared final album from Swans’ present line-up, but it is certainly no whimpering exit. On the contrary, it is a thing of intense and magnificent beauty that doesn’t once let up for over two hours – despite several... Read more... |
CD: Sarah Jarosz - UndercurrentSaturday, 11 June 2016![]() The fourth album from 25-year-old Texan singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz is a beautiful mope. It’s country-flavoured but is neither overflowing with syrupy emotion, nor honed to flinty Cash/Rubin desolation. Jarosz, who recently graduated from the New... Read more... |
CD: Train - Does Led Zeppelin IIWednesday, 08 June 2016![]() Led Zeppelin are an icon of musical class. Train, even their admirers must admit, are not. With this faithful, perhaps too faithful cover, the credit can only flow one way. Responses to this album have been a touchstone of journalistic identity,... Read more... |
Seasick Steve – A Myth UnravelsTuesday, 07 June 2016![]() Life and art have generally had a troubled relationship. In the case of former hobo and punk-blues singer Seasick Steve, however, it all seemed so simple. When he sang "Dog House Boogie" on his extraordinary Hootenanny debut nearly a decade ago, it... Read more... |
AC/DC, Olympic Stadium, Queen Elizabeth ParkMonday, 06 June 2016![]() The accepted wisdom from last month's relaunched Rock or Bust tour was that the substitution of Axl Rose for incapacitated singer Brian Johnson was as masterful as it was surprising. Whatever the Guns N' Roses man lacked in mischief, the story went... Read more... |
